56 MISC. PUBLICATION 7 02, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Experiments show the potentialities but farmers quite often have some 

 practical problems that prevent them from realizing the potential. 

 This is especially true with the results from controlled-grazing 

 experiments. 



WESTERN STATES— PRELIMINARY FINDINGS 



Because of variable climatic and physical conditions, and the many 

 different types of farming practiced, a generalized treatment of this 

 subject for the West is impossible. Therefore only a few of the many 

 important aspects are discussed. Among these are economic appraisals 

 of the effects of reseeding wheat land to crested wheat grass, of 

 including this grass in long-time crop rotations with cash-grain crops 

 in the drier areas of the northern Plains, of increasing acreages of 

 grasses and legumes in crop rotations in the main corn-producing area 

 of the Plains, and of artificial and natural reseeding of the range. In 

 addition to the foregoing, other important range-management prac- 

 tices, together with some of the possibilities and problems involved in 

 irrigated pastures and range, are discussed. 



The same factors — high prices and generally favorable precipita- 

 tion — during and following both World Wars I and II, resulted in the 

 breaking and planting to wheat of vast areas of grassland in the West. 

 Much of the land broken after World War I proved to be unprofitable 

 for production of wheat during periods of less favorable prices and 

 rainfall, and it was abandoned. During the 1930's much of this land 

 reverted to grass through natural reseeding, and large acreages were 

 artificially seeded to such grasses as crested wheat in the North and 

 native grasses in the South. Thousands of these acres in different 

 stages of recovery, in addition to large acreages of virgin range, have 

 been broken and seeded to wheat during this decade. These changes 

 have occurred in the wheat areas of the northern and southern Great 

 Plains, the Columbia River drainage basin of Oregon, Washington, 

 and Idaho, and the dry-land wheat areas of southeastern Idaho and 

 northern Utah. 



With a decline in the heavy European demand for wheat and a 

 return to more normal weather conditions, we may reasonably expect 

 that much of this marginal land will again become unprofitable for 

 production of wheat. Alternative uses for this land include seeding 

 to a permanent or rotation grass cover for use either as pasture or 

 hay for livestock and, to a limited extent, the production of commercial 

 grass seed. 



Problems in Extending Forage Use in Great Plains Farming Systems 

 (As Illustrated hy Studies of Case Farms) 



In a number of areas in the wheat regions of the West both wheat 

 and livestock are important sources of income on the same operating 

 units. Over much of the northern Great Plains wheat land is often 

 adjacent to or interspersed with range land. In such areas livestock 

 frequently offer good possibilities of bolstering and stabilizing agri- 

 culture against the effects of dry weather and a reduced market de- 

 mand for wheat. Here livestock must be fed in the winter, but during 

 drought years little or no winter feed is produced. To overcome this 

 obstacle part of the wheat land may be used either for growing feed 



